Morocco and Israel are set to establish direct air flights as a step in the efforts of the administration of US President Donald Trump to normalise Arab-Israeli relations, after brokering a peace deal between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates, the Jerusalem Post reported on Saturday.
Morocco would become the third Arab country to establish open skies for Israeli airlines, following a 31 August announcement of the UAE-Israeli normalisation deal.
The report came as part of the Arab-Israeli normalisation efforts launched by the Trump administration after reaching the UAE-Israeli agreement. The signing of an agreement is scheduled to take place at the White House as soon as next Tuesday.
On 15 August, The Times of Israel reported, citing anonymous US officials, that Morocco would be the next Arab country to normalise relations with Tel Aviv, after the UAE. Although Morocco has no official diplomatic relations with Israel, there are tourism and trading relations between the two nations. In addition, Moroccan Jews are the second largest Jewish community in Israel, after Russian Jews, exceeding one million people.
On Wednesday, Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, told reporters that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain had agreed to open their skies for flights to and from Israel.
“They agreed to open their airspace not just to flights from Israel to the United Arab Emirates and back, but to all eastward travel,” Kushner said of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
On Friday, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain announced agreeing to join the Tuesday signing of the UAE-Israeli peace deal. UAE and Bahrain will become the third and fourth Arab states, respectively, to normalise relations with Israel. In the past, only Egypt and Jordan have had official ties with Tel Aviv.